Our History
The Toledo YES Project has a rich history in the Toledo area. We have been helping those in our community since the early 1980s.
Early 1980s
1990s
Late 1990s
2005
Present
The Toledo YES Project was started by Fr. Tom Oedy as a program of the Youth Office of the Diocese of Toledo. In those days there were multiple YES Projects every year, sometimes in the summer, sometimes in other seasons, and they generally were no larger than 20 – 30 students.
In the 1990s, many area Catholic high schools began to require service hours as part of their graduation requirements. With this change in policy, many high schools students began looking for ways to get those hours. The Toledo YES Project seemed like a perfect fit as one could get everything done in a 4 day time span while meeting new people from the area and have fun doing it!
The Diocese of Toledo began cutting funding in several program areas, including the Youth Office, as a result of personnel and financial shifts. The Toledo YES Project was getting too big and requiring too much financial backing for the Diocese to realistically continue to fund it as it had in the past. As a result it was cut out of the funding from that office.
However, many people behind the organization of the Toledo YES Project decided they wanted to keep things going despite these budget cuts at the diocese. Many youth ministers and adult volunteers worked very hard to ensure it continued and to find donations to keep things going. Eventually, it was decided to begin the process of becoming our own non-profit organization, which finally became official in 2005.
The Toledo YES Project continues to serve the Toledo community by serving around 12 different homeowners / non-profit organizations each year. Allowing local high school students the opportunity to get their service hours, meet other high schoolers from around the Toledo area, and grow closer to Christ.